39 Weeks

That's right - just 7 days till my official due date.  I am not expecting to actually be in labor next Saturday, although that sure would be nice.  Now that my heartburn issues have been resolved, or at least under control, things haven't been too bad.  Sure I am not the most comfortable, but I just take it easy and try and rest as much as possible.

Today we took 39 week belly pictures.  For fun, I wore the same shirt as 20 weeks ago, when I was 19 weeks along.  Check out how much my belly has grown:

Practice

You know what they say - "practice makes perfect"!  Last night we took a practice run to the hospital!  Yesterday evening around 7:30, I was having a sharp pain in my upper right side.  It seemed too high to be my appendix, and it wasn't super painful - just uncomfortable and consistently coming every few seconds.  It continued as I went to bed.  I was a little worried and tried my friend Dr. Google to see what it could be. 

I fell right to sleep, but when I awoke at 1, it was still there and my stomach seemed really tight.  So I woke up Uncas and we called the midwife on-call.  After asking me some questions, she said that I could come in to be monitored and to check things out.  Of course I felt really stupid and said as much, but she explained that if something serious happened and I didn't come in, I would feel terrible and she would feel terrible too!

So - off we went getting ready to leave at 1:30 in the morning.  I do have a bag packed and we added a few things.  I had to get Sammy's bag ready in case we ended up staying there and of course he was just plain confused!  I knew that I wasn't having any contractions, but I was just worried that the sharp pain might mean something else was wrong.

In a way it was nice to make this little trip because neither Uncas or I are very familiar with hospitals (I went once when I was 5 for a couple of stitches in my chin).  The nurses and midwife were super nice.  They hooked me up to the monitors and baby was doing just fine (Thank Goodness!) and I wasn't having any contractions.  The midwife thinks I have a bruised rib from the baby kicking me.  It wouldn't surprise me as my child is quite active.  But last night everyone kept commenting on how active the baby was, so I think it might be more active than normal.  We are definitely convinced that we have a budding soccer player inside of me!

All told we were probably there for about an hour.  I am glad it was nothing more serious and still feel a little silly for going in.  But ultimately, I would have just been up all night worrying about nothing, so it's probably not such a bad thing.  The midwife even said that it was good to come in to be sure because nothing is more important than the health of the baby. 

And now we know where to go and what we have to do when the baby really does come.  Instinctively I knew that this really wasn't it - we didn't even bring our bag into the hospital, but it makes me less intimidated when the time actually comes.

I think that we still have at least a week if not longer before the baby makes his/her appearance.  I hope that more snow melts here before the baby comes.  I don't know why, but I have always pictured bringing the baby home with little to no snow on the ground!  But much like not being able to control when a baby decides to come, I can't control the weather either!

Baby Nimzlet Says:

Happy 60th Birthday Grandma Nimz!

Dear Grandma,

I hope you have a great day.  I can't wait to meet you soon!  My parents tell me that you have a room full of fabulous toys that I can play with once I am born.  I also hear you have a wonderful yard and a fun dog to play with as well!

See you soon!
Love,
-baby Nimzlet

38 Weeks

These are belly pictures for my mom (do you think I have dropped, cause I don't?)  I think I am starting to reach the really uncomfortable stage now.  Last night I slept horribly.  I kept waking up to not only heartburn, but throwing up inside my mouth - yuck!  At 5 am I even tried to sleep in our recliner (which resulted in the whole family getting up - Uncas getting me blankets and pillows and then Sammy insisted on sleeping on my lap!), but that didn't work, so I watched tv for an hour and then went back to bed.

As a result, I feel like I haven't done very much today, but watch a lot of Olympics.  Uncas has been down in the basement working in the laundry area.  It's coming along very nicely.  I will be sure to post pictures when it's complete.  Our only regret is that we never took any "before" pictures.  But it was so gross down there, that I am fine with that.

I'll leave you with one final picture.  Here are my cute boys:

Nineteen

Today is February 19th.  The number has special meaning for Uncas and I.  Both of our birthdays fall on the 19th and as a result, we married on the 19th.  This morning I had a conversation with the baby.  I explained that I would give it a bonus if it showed up today.  I do realize that this will probably not be the first time that my child doesn't listen to me.  In all honestly, I have absolutely no signs pointing that I will deliver today.  Oh well - at least I attempted!  I suppose it's not the end of the world if the child isn't born on the 19th.  Sammy's birthday actually falls on the 18th!

In other baby news, I decided to switch the size of my crochet hook to change the size of the baby hat (from the previous post).  My mother-in-law also gave me some advice on the size of a newborn hat, which was helpful.  I made two new hats.  One for a girl and one for a boy.  I am going to take them both to the hospital and depending on what little Nimzlet is will determine which hat he or she wears home. 

 Girl hat

Boy Hat

I still have another pattern that I would like to try.  It's a good thing I know so many people have babies this year.  These hats are fun to make and they take so little time.

Nursery

We have finally managed to get things pretty well organized in the baby's room.  Here are some pictures:

You'll notice we don't have much on the walls.  I think at this point we are going to wait until after the baby is born.  I would like to put the baby's name in big letters on the wall, and we have talked about adding some gender specific stuff to the room as well.  It's a tiny room, but I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  We would still like to get a glider for the room (the white chair is just in there temporarily for me to sit when I am working in there). 

This week I also crocheted my first baby hat ever!  It turned out really cute!

My only problem with the hat is that it seems awfully big for a newborn, which is what the pattern was for.  Uncas didn't think so, but to prove my theory correct, I found a little model.

As you can see, the hat fits little Eliza perfectly.  However, Eliza is three months old, so I will have to go back and figure out how to make it smaller.  As payment for modeling, I gave Eliza the hat.  I mean, how could I take it away from that cute face?!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Weekend!  Yesterday started out a little rocky.  I made caramel rolls on Friday night, and completely messed up baking them on Saturday morning.  And in that process I burned my hand!  Uncas was playing with Sammy during this and Sammy accidentally bit him in the hand - blood was drawn!  Then as we were heading to the store, Uncas's car has been "wobbling", so we filled up his tires.  That didn't help, so now we have car crap to deal with!

Fortunately, after that the day got much better.  We went to Babies R Us and finished up purchasing things off our registry.  I had gone there earlier in the week to add a few things, which worked out great because I knew exactly where everything was.  I just kept telling Uncas "Ok, next we go over here and we get this and this."  We are now baby central!

We also went to Target and bought a bookshelf thing for the baby's room.  I am really feeling good in terms of being ready now for the baby to come.  Yesterday marked my 37 week.  That is a huge milestone because now the baby is considered full-term!  I am so grateful to have made it to this point!  Here are some belly pictures:

On Friday a co-worker of Uncas's offered him tickets to see Macbeth at the Guthrie in Minneapolis for Saturday night.  With all the preparation for the baby, we hadn't made any plans to go out this weekend, so he took them.  Last night we enjoyed a fabulous dinner at a little Thai place (they even gave me a rose) and then we saw Macbeth.  I haven't ever been to the Guthrie.  It's a really cool building.  The performance was really good and it was so much fun to go out for the night!

We said this year that we weren't going to exchange gifts for Valentine's day, but this morning I woke up to roses from Uncas and a box of chocolates from Sammy! 

So, I am now making new caramel rolls and letting Uncas sleep in as my present to him.  And speaking of which, I need to go finish up those rolls!

My First Baby

While he isn't human, Sammy will always have a special place in my heart as my first baby.  Over the past few months as I have spent more time at home, I have come to appreciate having him in my life even more.  I know it seems silly - he's just a dog, but it's amazing what the unconditional love of "just a dog" can do for you. I like having him around to keep me company during the day.  He makes me laugh, he makes me play, he's the ultimate napping partner, when the weather was nicer - he was my walking companion, he's my watchdog when the mailman comes and he is always happy to see me come home, even if I am gone for 15 minutes.

When we first found out we were expecting a baby, I immediately started thinking about what we were going to do with Sammy when I went into labor.  It seemed silly 9 months ago to be worrying about that, but I kept thinking about how confused he would be if we left him alone for a really long time.  Fortunately we have wonderful friends who live close by who will take care of Sammy.  Then came the worry of how Sammy will adjust to having a baby in the household.  I still think about it and have done a lot reading on this topic. 

I know he has no idea what's coming in the next few weeks.  I point out all the stuff for the Baby and have been leaving out things, like the bouncy seat and swing, so he will be used to that stuff.  We haven't closed off the baby's room (a suggestion that I read about), so he can go in there as he pleases.  He sniffs the new stuff, but has left everything alone.  I constantly tell him "it's for the Baby" as if he can understand me.

Ultimately I think (hope) he will be ok when we bring home Little Nimzlet.  He likes kids and we made sure from an early age that he was around them.  Maybe one of the biggest differences will be the lack of pictures we will take of Sammy versus the new baby.  Anytime Sammy does something cute now, we whip out the camera.  I have a feeling that will only happen when Sammy is doing something cute with the baby! 

For the next 3 weeks (+ or - a week or 2) I am treasuring my time with Sammy - free from distraction.  When I got home from Target today, instead of immediately unpacking everything, I brought Sammy up on the bed with me.  We played and cuddled and played for 20 minutes. 

I know to most people he is just a dog.  He will always be my first baby.

Hurray for Babies!

It's with great excitement that I can share some more baby news with you today!  My best friend Lisa and her husband Brian have announced that they are expecting their second baby this August!!!!

Lisa shared the news with me when she was in town for my baby shower.  She brought out this adorable picture and I was absolutely overjoyed!!!  They are already fabulous parents to Caiden who will be 2 in April (and he's also my wonderful Godson)! 

The only downside to this news is that they will probably be staying in Seattle a little bit longer, but I am already fantasizing about our kids playing together when they are older.

Congratulations Lisa and Brian!  We are wishing a happy and healthy pregnancy for you and Baby Duchek #2!!!!!

NBR

This post is Not Baby Related (NBR) for a change.  Instead it's baking related! 

Last week on my other blog, the author of the cookbook that Lisa and I are baking our way through, Beth Lipton, left us comment.  We were so excited!  I also follow her on Twitter, and I noticed that she tweeted about us as well.  And yesterday on her blog, she also mentioned us and our blog again.  It's funny because she is just as excited and thrilled that we are using her cookbook as we are from hearing from her!  It also means we have a little bit more pressure to follow through with our project!

Also related to our baking project - I feel as though I should give a little bit more background and credit to why I even thought up this project in the first place.  One of the blogs that I follow, Stir it! Scrape it! Mix it! Bake it! is written by a friend of a friend.  Her name is Abby and I have actually met her a few times.  She is currently working her way through a bread making cookbook.  I was so impressed by this and love reading her blog as she recounts the recipes that she has made.  I decided that it would be fun to do something like that as well and recruited Lisa because I needed someone else to keep me accountable for this project.

But what impresses me most about Abby is that she not only is baking bread, which seems far more time-consuming than whipping up some quick dessert, but that she has two young children and works full-time as a teacher!  I figured if she could find the time to make bread weekly, then surely I can find time to make a dessert weekly - even with a new baby on the way.

So - thank you Abby for your inspiration!  Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to attempt to work my way through The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread!

Baby Shower

I didn't intend to wait a full week to post pictures from the shower, but somehow the time got away from me! Monday was I was busy getting our house back in order from the weekend and then Tuesday I finally crashed. I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday washing baby clothes and blankets and putting stuff away and finally yesterday I just played. A friend invited me to a movie and then I had dinner with my book club friends. So - here it is a week later, but I do have some pictures to share! Below is a slide show of pictures from the day.

Slide Show:

Click here to view these pictures larger

Don't Forget!

If you haven't filled out an entry for the Baby Pool for Baby Nimzlet, be sure to do it before February 20, 2010. After that time, we won't be accepting new entries.

Also - you can only submit one entry. If you try submitting more, they will not count.

Thanks and good luck!!!

As if I am not busy enough

At the end of last year, I was inspired to do a new project for 2010. Both my best friend Lisa and I love to bake. I wished that she lived closer (she's in Seattle), so we could bake together. We decided to do the next best thing - we are baking our way through a dessert cookbook.

The book we decided on is You Made That for Dessert by Beth Lipton. The goal for this little project was to not only expand and perfect our baking skills, but also to broaden our horizons and try some new things.

In doing this, however, we are keeping a blog to document our journey. You can check it out at:

Best Friends Baking

I also have a link included at the side of this blog.

Each week we are baking a different recipe and we are each blogging about our experience. So far we are three weeks in and it's been a lot of fun. Of course, we have started with some fairly "easy" recipes.

So - follow along with our little project if you like. You might even be able to taste some of the goods if you happen to stop by during the right time of the week. This past weekend our house guests were able to sample last week's recipe - Peanut Butter Banana Bread!